"It's a matter of shame that Israeli forces are killing innocent children, and women in Gaza, and our president is engaged in appeasing America to save his stint," said Asadullah Khan, a software engineer, told IslamOnline.net.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry confirmed on Monday that Musharraf and Barak met "by chance" last week in Paris.

Foreign ministry sources confirmed that Musharraf and Barak held two separate meetings.

They first met at the Hotel Raphael but the following day Musharraf invited the Israeli minister for a meeting and the two talked for about an hour.

Asadullah ridiculed that Pakistani and Israeli officials are increasingly meeting one another "by chance" recently.

"He (Musharraf) should desist from befooling the nation. He should tell us the truth," he said. "Who has given him the mandate to do that?"

"If it was a by-chance meeting, then what about the meeting between Kasuri (former Pakistani foreign minister), and Israeli foreign minister in Istanbul in 2006?"

Hassan Hammad, the secretary general of United Students Alliance, a conglomeration of several student organizations, blasted what he termed as the "shameful meeting."

"Musharraf has shoved knife in the back of Muslim Ummah," he fumed.

Contacts with Israel are a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan, which has no official relations with Tel Aviv.

Reports about previous meetings between Pakistani and Israeli officials even it was just a handshake had engendered massive protests in the world's second-most populous Muslim country.

The situation is more tense than anytime before given Israel's deadly blockade of the Gaza Strip and almost non-stop onslaughts that killed in recent days up to 100 Palestinians, including children and women.

"Similar"

Lawyer Nihal Hashmi was not surprised by the Musharraf-Barak get-together, because they are "similar."

"They have unleashed aggression and suppression against the innocent people. What Israel is doing in Gaza today, Musharraf is doing the same in Pakistan's tribal areas. Our army is killing our own people," said Hashmi.

The army has launched a full-scale operation to crush militants holing in the restive northwestern tribal areas bordering Afghanistan in the wake of the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on December 27.

Pakistani and US officials have blamed her murder on Waziristan-based tribal warlord Baitullah Mehsud, saying that he is backed by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. He denies any involvement.

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